U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,508 describes a method of making abrasive products, which comprises diamond-embedded nickel nodules electrodeposited onto a conductively rendered backing fabric. Such products, which are conveniently used in the form of belts or discs for rough finishing of stone, marble and other tough materials, can only be used for the initial abrading operation. In order to produce a fine, polished finish, use must be made of resin-bonded abrasive products, for example as described in published PCT application no. PCT/GB89/01059. Such abrasive products have a pattern of molded resin segments including diamond particles formed on a substrate. The resin, which is applied in the form of a liquid or paste during manufacture, bears fine diamond particles and can be used to produce a highly polished finish, such as is observed in facing panels used on the walls and floors of buildings. Such resin bonded products have too short a useful life to be practical for initial rough finishing purposes.
Therefore it has been necessary to employ the electroplated single layer product or alternatively a conventionally molded, multi-layer, metal bonded product for rough finishing prior to using the wholly resin-bonded product for the final polishing operation.
However, the electroplated product and particularly the molded metal-bonded rigid abrasive products of the prior art tend to leave scratches during the initial roughing work having a depth requiring further abrading steps prior to performing the subsequent final polishing stage. While the initial abrasive product should aggressively and efficiently abrade the work surface, the tendency to leave scratches or pits of significant depth is a troublesome and undesirable problem, heretofore not satisfactorily solved by prior art methods and means.
An object of the present invention is to alleviate the aforementioned disadvantage.